Topic: The Miracle of Angels in the Battle of Badr Posted: 14 October 2012 at 3:28pm

Non-Muslims
may ask how we can know that Muhammad really saw the angel
Gabriel in the cave.

Here
follows an event from a different time in Muhammad’s life to illustrate his
veracity from which we can add to other events to form a foundation for
determining Muhammad’s reliability.

The event of the battle in Badr valley:

Just
the facts,

The army of the Quraysh pagans was about 1000
strong.

The Muslim army had about 300 to 315 fighters.

As the Quraysh pagan army was winning, they
suddenly turned around and fled in chaos.

The Badr valley is surrounded by mountains on
all sides. There are only three narrow ways in and out of the valley.

The night before the battle, there had been a
substantial rain and the ground was damp on the day of the battle.

Part 1, The Battle of Badr, a quick summary:

A, Muhammad predicts what was going to happen.

After
losing some man to man duels against the Muslims, the pagan Quraysh descended
on the Muslims with a fury and the Muslims were hard pressed to defend their
line.

Muhammad
was commanding from behind the Muslims, and the following verse of the Quran
was then revealed from God to Muhammad,

{I will help you with a thousand angels in succession, one
following behind the other. }
(Quran: 8,9)

Muhammad
then said to his friend, Abu Bakr, “. . . I can see the angelGabriel on his mare in
the thick of a sand storm.”

But
there was no sand storm that anyone else could see, . . . yet.

Then
the following verse of the Quran was revealed,

{ Their (the pagan’s) multitude will be put to flight, and
they will show their backs.” } (Quran:
54:45)

Then
Muhammad picked up a handful of gravel and threw it in the direction of the
pagans and said, “confusion seize their faces!”

Just
as he threw the gravel, a violent sandstorm blew into the faces of the enemies.

This
was very strange since it was difficult for any strong wind to blow into the
valley, and the ground was wet from the rain the night before.

B, An unexpected
sand-storm blows from the rock mountains.

In the Valley of Badr, the Muslims were based on the South West part of valley. The Quraysh
disbelievers were based on the North East part of the valley.

The Muslims had their backs to the Al-AsfalMountains, which is the lower mountain chain to Makkah.

So, the wind, if it was from natural
causes, would have had to blow through a mountain chain when the ground was
damp from the rain and had no loose dust to pick up, and would have had to
appear just moments after Muhammad predicted it while no one else could see it,
and just as Muhammad through the gravel at the Quraysh with his prayer.

Since the Muslims had the mountains just
behind them, the sand storm would have had to appear through a wall of wet
rock, go just in the right direction, and just at the right time. Then there
would have had to have been reports of seeing or noticing the effects of angels
from both sides.

As
the pagans were blinded by the sand storm, the Muslims immediately regained the
upper hand and the pagans were thrown into confusion. They turned around and
fled in disorder and panic as the Muslim army gave pursuit.

After
the battle was over, the following verse was revealed by God to Muhammad,

{ And you (Muhammad) did not throw when you threw, but it
was God who threw. } (Quran:
8:17)

Before
the pagans fled, the Muslims were busy fighting and had not heard Muhammad say
that he saw Gabriel, nor had the Muslims
heard the verse in which God promised the help of angels.

Part 2, People report seeing angels:

But
the Muslims later reported various sightings. Some said that they saw unknown
horsemen whose horses’ hoofs did not touch the ground.

Some
Muslims did not see the angels directly, but
saw the effects of the angels such as one
Muslim named Hazuim who reported seeing the head of a fleeing pagan get
mysteriously cut off before he could reach him. Hazuim had been giving chase
and he heard a swashing of a horse whip and then a detached voice say, “forward
Hazuim!”

When
he reported the incident to Muhammad, he said to Hazuim, “You have said the
truth. This was help from the third heaven.”

Even
one of the captured pagan disbelievers named Abbas bin Abdul-Muttalib reported,
“this man did not capture me. I was captured by a different man who was bald
and handsome and who was riding a piebald horse. I do not see him here among
the people.” The Muslim holding Abbas captive then interrupted Abbas and
proclaimed to Muhammad, “I captured him, O Messenger of Allah.”

Muhammad
then said to him, “Be quiet, God the All-Mighty strengthened you with the help
of a noble angel.”

Abbas
bin Abdul-Muttalib had brought 100 gold coins with him, and had left a secret
savings with his wife in Mecca.

When
the time for ransom came, Abbas said that he had no other wealth than what he
had brought, and then Muhammad asked Abbas about the gold that he had left with
his wife. Abbas was stunned and asked Muhammad how he knew about that, and
Muhammad responded that the angel Gabriel had told him.

To
add more to the miracle of angels in the Battle of Badr, I will quote Martin
Lings’ biography of Muhammad where Lings summarizes the hadith,

“Others had brief
glimpses of the Angels riding on horses whose hooves never touched the ground,
led by Gabriel wearing a yellow turban, whereas the turbans of the other angels
were white, with one end left streaming behind them.”

page
152.

Here is another example of a non-Muslim
disbeliever reporting the angels.

One of the defeated non-Muslim survivors
named Abu Sufyan bin Al-Harith fled back to Mecca. He narrated the events of the defeat to another
disbeliever named Abu Lahab who had not been present at the battle.

Abu Sufyan’s account emphasized the angels
as being the cause of the defeat.

When a poor Muslim named Abu Rafi over
heard the discussion, he began to repeat the event with the miraculous role of
the angels, and Abu Lahab became so angry that he began beating up the
destitute Abu Rafi.

The
above is only one event from the life of Muhammad. There were others. The
combination of such incidents along with the miracles of the Quran, the
excellence of the personality of Muhammad, and many other things attest that
Muhammad was indeed telling the truth when he spoke of having seen the angel Gabriel in
the night of the first revelation, as Matt Browne has asked about.

Part 3, Review:

A,The disbeliever’s challenge has been met:
Others did see the angels.

The disbelievers raised the challenge,
“did others besides Muhammad see the angels?”

So, in answer to the disbeliever’s
challenge of anyone else seeing angels, we have as one example, the Battle of
Badr where other people saw the angels also.

1,Some
other Muslims witnessed the angels.

The Muslims later reported various sightings. Some said that they
saw unknown horsemen whose horses’ hoofs did not touch the ground.”

2,Some
examples of non-Muslims seeing the angles.

Remember that an angel that told Muhammad
about the gold that Abbas bin Abdul-Muttalib had secretly given to his wife,
and that Abbas also reported being captured by one invisible to others. That
was a case where a disbeliever saw an angel, but a Muslim standing next to him
didn’t see it.

I had also mentioned the report of a
Muslim named Hazuim who reported seeing the head of a disbeliever get cut off
by no means that he could see while at the same time he heard a detached voice
encouraged him on.

I had written:

Some Muslims did not see the
angels directly, but saw the effects of the angels such as one Muslim named
Hazuim who reported seeing the head of a fleeing pagan get mysteriously cut off
before he could reach him. Hazuim had been giving chase and he heard a swashing
of a horse whip and then a detached voice say, “forward Hazuim!”

When Hazuim reported the
incident to Muhammad, he said to Hazuim, “You have said the truth. This was
help from the third heaven.”

B, Other examples of
Muhammad’s knowledge of the unknown.

1, Muhammad’s knowledge of death of the
Persian king before the king’s own agents knew:

Muhammad’s knowledge of Abbas’s secret
gold at the Battle of Badr was not the only example of Muhammad having
knowledge unknown to others. On a different occasion, the king of Persia, Khosroe, once ordered the governor of Yaman, a
man named Bazan, to arrest Muhammad. Bazan sent to agents to arrest Muhammad.
When they arrived in Medinah, Muhammad informed them that Khosroe was dead.
They returned to Yaman empty handed and later word arrived that king Khosroe
had been murdered by his son the very night of the agents’ meeting with
Muhammad.

Bazan, the governer of Yaman, converted to
Islam upon learning this and succeeded from Persia.

2, Muhammad’s knowledge of the
secret mission of Umair:

Umair bin Wahb Al-Jumahi was one of the
hardened polytheists who had gone further and further astray.
After the battle of Badr, he went on a secret mission from Mecca to Medina to murder the holy prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him).

Safwan bin Umaiyah had quietly offered to
pay Umair’s debts and family financial obligations so that Umair could go on
that assassination attempt.

But when Umair was caught, and the prophet revealed to Umair his secret
mission, then Umair was taken by surprise. He converted to Islam, and then
returned to Mecca to spread the message, and many converted back to
Islam. Such was the compassionate miracle of Allah through His prophet that
brought Umair back.

I had also mentioned the report of a
Muslim named Hazuim who reported seeing the head of a disbeliever get cut off
by no means that he could see while at the same time he heard a detached voice
encouraged him on.

I had written:

Some Muslims did not see the
angels directly, but saw the effects of the angels such as one Muslim named
Hazuim who reported seeing the head of a fleeing pagan get mysteriously cut off
before he could reach him. Hazuim had been giving chase and he heard a swashing
of a horse whip and then a detached voice say, “forward Hazuim!”

When he reported the incident to
Muhammad, he said to Hazuim, “You have said the truth. This was help from the
third heaven.”

So, Muslims and non-Muslims had seen the
angels.

Part 4, Responding to
some objections:

A, How can we trust the
authenticity of the events?

Muslims believe that we must follow the
Quran and the example of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) if we are to
enter into heaven. So, it is to our advantage to copy the sayings and actions
of Muhammad, as well as the contextual events surrounding his life, friends,
and enemies, as closely as possible.

To that end, they followed an objective
and complex set of standards to determine which hadith were reliable and which
were not. They followed those standards with meticulous care. Those standards
are preserved as well as the hadith. Their methodology can be reproduced at
will.

B, The miracle was not
just that the Muslims defeated a more powerful force.

Now, the disbelievers may object by
claiming that the history of warfare is filled with examples against vastly superior
forces; but that is not our standard for miracles, and the disbelievers would
be just misrepresenting our point with such an objection.

C, The miracle was not
just that an unexpected wind blew into the faces of the disbelievers at just
the right time.

They might also object and say that it is
not an impressive event for wind to blow into the face of the enemy. For
example, Hannibal, the leader of an army from Carthage that fought Rome, arranged matters so that the
wind blew dust into the faces of the advancing Romans.”

There is a huge difference between
Hannibal “arranging matters” so that a wind will blow dust in the faces of the
enemy, and what happened in the valley of Badr, where as I had stated
previously,

The Badr valley is surrounded by mountains on all sides. There
are only three narrow ways in and out of the valley.

The night before the battle, there had been a
substantial rain and the ground was damp on the day of the battle.

So, the ground was damp from a rain the
night before, and the valley was surrounded by mountains such that a sand storm
could not blow in. Muhammad could not have “arranged matters” for things to
fall into place under such circumstances.

On top of that, the sand storm came just
as Muhammad threw the gravel and made the prayer.

On top of that still, there was the
reports of the angels from both the Muslims and the non-Muslim disbelievers,
and this might have been the main miracle of all.

So, clearly the miracle was not at all
merely that of inferior forces beating a vastly superior force.

In the Valley of Badr, the Muslims were based on the South West part of valley. The Quraysh
disbelievers were based on the North East part of the valley.

The Muslims had their backs to the Al-AsfalMountains, which is the lower mountain chain to Makkah.

How could a wind blow through a
mountain chain, especially when the ground around was wet and there was no dry
dust to pick up? And what are the chances that such an inexplicable event would
have happened just as the Muslims needed it to happen? And what are the chances
that such an inexplicable wind happening at just the right time would have
would have blown in just the right direction.

D, Why were the Muslims
attacking an unarmed caravan to begin with?

The pagan Quraysh of Mecca, in their rage,
had sent a letter to the Muslims in Medina promising to slaughter them.

In addition, Muslim intelligence sources
in Mecca were reporting back to Muslims in Medina that the pagan Quraysh were openly plotting
against them.

Muhammad at one time even called for
volunteers to protect his family as they slept at night.

As the Muslims escaped from Medina to Mecca, the pagan Quraysh had seized much of the wealth
that the Muslims left behind. In addition, the pagans persecuted those Muslims
who had been unable to flee. The pagans had also sent an ultimatum to the
leader of pagans in Medina to fight and expel the Muslims. To that effect,
the pagans in Medina gathered to fight the Muslims, but backed down at
the last second.

The pagan Quraysh of Mecca had even put
economic sanctions, blockades, and embargoes against the Muslims in Medina. It was based on hostile actions such as the ones
above that the permission to fight was given to the Muslims.

Part 5, What to think of such an event:

An appropriate response to the events of
the miracles of angels at the battle of Badr is for one to think something
like, “this is amazing and lends evidence to Muhammad’s help from God.”

So, when Muhammad narrates his seeing the angelGabriel, we
can add this event to many other things to see that Muhammad was true.

But then again, if someone like Abu Sufyan
could be so hard hearted to reject Islam even after he saw the angels, it is
not surprising then that others like Abu Lahab and the critics here would reject
Islam upon hearing of the events.

All muslims should know the following Hadith, so I will post it here for any non-Muslims who are interested.

I hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread....

It was narrated that 'Umar said:

"We were sitting with the Prophet () when a man came to him whose clothes were intensely white and whose hair was intensely black; no signs of travel could be seen upon him, and none of us recognized him. He sat down facing the Prophet (), with his knees touching his, and he put his hands on his thighs, and said: 'O Muhammad, what is Islam?' He said: 'To testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and that I am the Messenger of Allah, to establish regular prayer, to pay Zakat, to fast in Ramadan, and to perform Hajj to the House (the Ka'bah).' He said: 'You have spoken the truth.' We were amazed by him: He asked a question, then told him that he had spoken the truth. Then he said: 'O Muhammad, what is Iman faith? He said: 'To believe in Allah, His angels, His Messengers, His books, the Last day, and the Divine Decree (Qadar), both the good of it and the bad of it.' He said' You have spoken the truth.' We were amazed by him. He asked a question, then told him that he had spoken the truth. Then he said: 'O Muhammad, what is Ihsan (right action, goodness, sincerity)? He said: 'To worship Allah as if you see Him, for even though you do not see Him, He sees you.' He asked: "When will the Hour be?' He said: 'The one who is being asked about it does not know more than the one who is asking.' He asked: 'Then what are its signs?' he said: 'When the slave woman gives birth to her mistress' (Waki' said: This means when non-Arabs will give birth to Arabs") 'and when you see barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in constructing tall buildings.' The Prophet () met me three days later and asked me: 'Do you know who that man was? I said" 'Allah and his Messenger know best.' He said: 'That was Jibril, who came to you to teach you your religion.'"

[4A] Muslims believe that we must follow the Quran and the example of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) if we are to enter into heaven. So, it is to our advantage to copy the sayings and actions of Muhammad, as well as the contextual events surrounding his life, friends, and enemies, as closely as possible.

Not necessarily. Pious fraud happens all the time, not just in Islam but in all religions. If you believe something fervently enough, and believe that you have a duty to convince others of this belief, then it is easy to rationalize making up a story to achieve that good purpose.

To that end, they followed an objective and complex set of standards to determine which hadith were reliable and which were not. They followed those standards with meticulous care. Those standards are preserved as well as the hadith. Their methodology can be reproduced at will.

And the result? Endless disputes over the reliability of not just individual hadith but whole collections of them. Do not confuse precision with accuracy. Your "standards of meticulous care" do not produce absolute certainty, but rather a hierarchy of authenticity, with varying levels of uncertainty.

And please note that this hierarchy is created and the authenticity of each hadith is evaluated, by men, not by God. Therefore to the extent that your religion relies on this evaluation, then your religion is defined by men, not by God. If men can be wrong (and they certainly can), then your religion can also be wrong.

[4D] It was based on hostile actions such as the ones above that the permission to fight was given to the Muslims.

To fight the aggressors, perhaps; but nothing can justify attacking unarmed civilians. Not in caravans, and not in office towers in downtown Manhattan.

Ron,
Allah tells in the Quran to the believers to follow the prophet as an example of how a Muslim should be.
On the matter of Hadith, I can consider some of what you said as my view too. As there are some Hadiths that may go against the essence of the Quran.
At the same time the Sunnah or tradition of the prophet only reach to us what we follow generation after generation from his time to ours, and of course in form of narrations or hadiths. We just have to be very careful when using them.
I do see that a lot of us the Muslims forget to follow the Quran, but try to follow the Hadiths. Like many not practiciing the Faraidh, the essentials and Musts, but fulfilling only the Sunnahs of the prophet. I would like to give you all an example and it is a true example. Years ago, when I was not a practicing Muslim, a similar fiend of mine when drinking water would sit down and drink water in three gulps as to follow a Sunnah of the prophet. The same friend on weekend evenings would take bottles of beer and invite me to drink with him forgetting that the Quran forbids us to do so. When reminded he would just come up with excuses and I would join him thinking that I was not as hypocritical as he was, I use to drink water in one gulp standing then. Thank God that that time of ignorance is gone for me.

Certainly we need to follow the Sunnah of the prophet but we must not do it blindly nor by ignoring our duties set by the Quran, the Fraidhs or Musts.
May Allah Guide us All and forgive our Mistakes.
Hasan

Edited by honeto - 24 October 2012 at 1:22pm

39:64 Proclaim: Is it some one other than God that you order me to worship, O you ignorant ones?"

Ron said, "If you believe something fervently enough, and believe that you have a
duty to convince others of this belief, then it is easy to rationalize
making up a story to achieve that good purpose."

That's completely different than what's happening here. Christians made up stories to get people to believe that Jesus is a god who died for their sins.

On the other hand, if we Muslims invent a story about Muhammad, it works against us because it makes it more difficult to enter heaven by following a false example.Christians didn't need to follow Jesus' example to the t (or so they believed) so they had no motive to avoid making up stories.So, your argument doesn't apply here.

And the extremely strict standards that we set for accepting a narrative such as checking the reliability of the narrators and having multiple chains of narration eliminate those stories that are merely fabricated.The Christians on the other hand, had no such standards at all for determining which gospels would get accepted into the New Testament. Rather, the Roman emperror Constantine held a council at Nicea in 325 AD where he stated which documents he wanted to be accepted, and Christians accept those documents as the gospels of God.

-------------

Ron said, "And the result? Endless disputes over the reliability of not just individual hadith but whole collections of them."

That just proves my point. Look how careful we are about what hadith we accept.

"Endless disputes" show that we are, with open minded attitudes, constantly scrutinizing, examining and re-examining, double checking and triple checking in an environment of open debate and honesty.Can the Christians say that about their gospels scrutiney?Look at what meticulous detail we put into scrutinizing and judging the hadith. That should increase everyone's confidence in the reliability since we are always ready to examine, reexamine and question them.

But we do put far more effort and strict standards than what normally gets accepted by historians, so if someone is looking for absolute certainty here when they are willing to accept less scrutinized standards for other history are just showing that they are making excuses to not believe.So if there is a one in a million chance that one word in a hadith is changed, we are going to reject it and lose a chance to behave in a way to please God?

-------------

Ron said, "...but rather a hierarchy of authenticity, with varying levels of uncertainty."

Which works to our benefit because we can follow the ones of high certainty and reject the weaker ones.

----------

Ron said, “If men can be wrong (and they certainly can),
then your religion can also be wrong.”

Men can also be right, and when they put
in the massive intellectual effort and objective scrutiny on standards that are
used to accept other ancient events, then they usually are right.

And if Ron is a man, then Ron can be wrong, and he certainly
is because we can double check the work of the hadith collectors like Bukhari
to see if they were right or not.

------------

Ron said, “…each hadith is evaluated, by men, not
by God.”

But what he leaves out there is that the hadith are
evaluated by sincere, intelligent, educated men who use a very strict and
objective standard, not just a random assortment of men basing their judgment
on their personal feelings and personal prejudices as occurred with the
Christian gospels.

-----------

Ron said, “Therefore to the extent that your religion
relies on this evaluation, then your religion is defined by men, not by God.”

That’s false reasoning. When Webster defies a word and I
repeat it, then I’m not the one who defined it just by repeating it.

When God defines a religion, I’m not defining it by
repeating God’s definition.

--------------

So, the disbelievers' argument is essentially that because there might be a miniscule chance that some hadith might be partially incorrect, they are going to disbelieve and ignore the mountains of evidence to believe.

What we see are the desperate attempts of disbelievers to find excuses to hold on to their disbelief.They are going trash their own souls for eternity because there is a tiny chance that some part might be wrong.

Truly, God guides those who have sincerity in their hearts, and leaves to darkness those who have corruption in their hearts.

Quran 26:200{...Thus do we put disbelief into the hearts of the guilty. They shall not believe in it until they see the woeful scourge....}

They will not believe until it is too late.

-------

Ron said, "To fight the aggressors, perhaps; but nothing can justify attacking unarmed civilians. Not in caravans, and not in office towers in downtown Manhattan."

For the caravan, the Muslims wanted to seize the goods. No one needed to get harmed. The caravan was not unarmed, just outnumbered, and back then and that place, warriors were civilians.For Manhatten, the USA has no right to complain about anything after having bombed the water treatment facilities and murdered 500,000 Iraqi children from 1991 to 1995 as one of their many, many, uncountable crimes. The masters of slaughtering unarmed civilians, from native Americans, to 300,000 Philipine people, to Hiroshima, to B-52 bombing Cambodia under Nixon killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, to My Lai type massacres in Vietnam, to drone strikes, to installing dictators to do the killing for them, and uncountable other instances of mass murder, have the audacity to complain when their victims strike back cause a microscopic fraction of a fraction of the damage done to them. Such is the nature of the oppressors.

Honeto, in my opinion, a Muslim is not a hypocrite just because he mixes good actions with bad.

A hypocrite (Munafiq) in the Islamic sense is someone who does not really believe, but pretends to be a Muslim to gain advantage.

On the other hand, sincere Muslims who sin out of weakness, addiction, confusion from stress, depression, ignorance, forgetfullness, or some other reason but then repent and try to do good in other places are not the same as those who only pretend to believe.

If a Muslim does sin, like drinking alcohol, then they had better do something good also like remembering God (zikr-Allah) through following the sunnah (example of Muhammad).But then maybe, being too ashamed to follow the sunnah after sinning is also a form of zikr-Allah.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, when you and your friend sinned, God said something to the angels like, "you see how when even these two of my servants disobey me, one still remembers me by following the sunnah of my prophet to come back to Me, and the other still remembers me and tries to come back to Me by feeling ashamed."

I think that there is difference between a sincere Muslim who sins from weakness and then feels ashamed versus a person pretending to be a Muslim to gain advantage then committing a sin.

So, what I'm trying to say is, let's not be too hard on ourselves or our brothers. We're only human. God is the most Compassionate, the most Merciful.

This is one of the many reasons why we should try to get Islamic governments in our countries like Indonesia, Morrocco, and Jordan, etc, so we can organize the helping of each other, and strengthen each other, and forbid public temptations.

The thing is we shouldn't be trying to convince these doubters because doubters will always doubt unless they have the guidance of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala. One can scream and shout from the rooftops only to be in vain.

Also we've decided not to engage with this kufr Ron Webb as his intentions are less than honourable.

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